Conservative think tank: abolish net neutrality, gut FCC powers

The Heritage Foundation, a top conservative think tank, says Congress should …

One of the nation's top conservative think tanks has issued a report urging Congress to review 20 "unnecessary and harmful regulations" that the group says should be clipped as soon as possible. Three of the 20 are administered by the Federal Communications Commission, notes the Heritage Foundation's new Rolling Back Red Tape backgrounder, and involve oversight over ISPs and media acquisitions.

"This regulatory tide must be reversed," Heritage's Dianne Katz concludes. "Policy­makers should not just prevent harmful new regulations, but must repeal costly and unnecessary rules already on the books."

Here are the three FCC-related powers on the list.

Net neutrality

No surprise that Heritage gives the FCC's new Open Internet Order top billing for repeal. The agency released the rules in December, and even though they exempt wireless broadband from any unreasonable discrimination provisions, Verizon and MetroPCS are suing the FCC anyway.

Rescind them, says Heritage, and block the FCC from spending any appropriated money to enforce the provisions.

"The new rules would hobble the ability of network owners to efficiently manage traffic flows, as well as chill the investment needed to keep the Internet growing," the report warns. "The end result: a slower and less dynamic Web. In addition, the rules give the government a role in deciding how content is treated on the Web, potentially threatening the free flow of information."

Media ownership rules

Over the last 70 years, both Congress and the FCC have enacted rules limiting the number of television and radio stations any single entity can own. These include a "dual network ban" going back to the World War II era that restricted any company to the ownership of one network (the target was NBC, which dropped a rib that eventually became ABC).

Companies like Clear Channel have long opposed the Commission's provision limiting the number of radio stations an entity can buy in any one market. The government's newspaper/TV station cross-ownership rule has been a particularly hot topic. The FCC is currently reviewing all these regulations, as the agency must every four years.

Heritage says the cross-ownership rule has definitely got to go.

"Most of these rules are decades old, dating back as far as 1941. The media world, however, has changed dramatically since that time," the report contends. "In such a world, ownership restrictions on media outlets make little sense." Competitive problems can be handled via the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission.

FCC merger review authority

Through the long process approving the Comcast/NBC Universal merger, conservatives argued that the government was hamstringing the new entity with unnecessary public interest conditions. Among them: the merger agreement stipulates that the new Comcast can't "exercise corporate control over or unreasonably withhold programming from Hulu," which it will now partially own.

But the report insists that Comcast and NBCU didn't compete with each other. "Congress should restrict the FCC's authority to review license transfers to a simple confirmation that the new licensee is eligible to hold the license," Heritage concludes.

The Heritage Foundation is not alone in its disdain for the FCC's regulatory powers. On the first day of the new Congress, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) introduced a bill that would bar the Commission from any further regulation of the Internet. With the Democrats still in charge of the Senate, prospects for legislation that limits the FCC's powers making it to President Obama's desk seem remote.

Matthew Lasar / Matt writes for Ars Technica about media/technology history, intellectual property, the FCC, or the Internet in general. He teaches United States history and politics at the University of California at Santa Cruz.